Various Artists - Juno: Music From The Motion Picture

Fantastic film looses some luster on album

Music plays an important role in the sharp-witted tale of Juno. The tale of an unexpectedly expectant high school girl has captured the eye of the nation, and now hopes to grab its ears while it is at it.

Despite Juno's confession that she loves The Stooges, and everything after them sounds 'cute', the soundtrack sticks with a much softer tone. The light acoustic folk gives the album a sweet, breezy naivety that perfectly matches the wistful tone of the film. The effort nails the 'cute' factor with Barry Louis Polisar's gingerly strummed love song "All I Want Is You", from the film's opening titles. The crisp harmonica and acoustic folk tune is hard not to grin and enjoy, even with fatally cuddly lines, "If I was a flower, growing wild and free / All I'd want is you to be my sweet honeybee". Cat Power's tender, barely-there cover of John Baptiste's "Sea Of Love" is among the best versions the classic soul song has seen.

The few non-acoustic cuts found here are from important portions of the film, involving conversations about good music between Juno and the adoptive father-to-be. Jason Bateman's character expects to blow Juno's mind with Sonic Youth's swirling cover of The Carpenters' "Superstar". It is an important piece of the film, and despite what Juno thought of the New York rockers, a fantastic tune. The most pivotal song in the film is Mott The Hoople's "All The Young Dudes", and the David Bowie penned ballad is something everyone should have on their iPod.

The soundtrack relies heavily on The Moldy Peaches singer Kimya Dawson, and she delivers repeatedly with the kind of sharp-tongued mellow tunes that sound as if they could come from flying out of the main character's mouth. Dawson's charms are hard to resist on sparse acoustic guitar only tunes like "Loose Lips", with hurried anti-suicide lyrics, "Call me up before you're dead / We can make some plans instead / Send me an IM, I'll be your friend". The best of Dawson's contributions is "Tire Swing", where she carelessly moves on from her ex, "I took the Polaroid down in my room / I'm pretty sure you have a new girlfriend / It's not like I don't like you / It just makes me sad whenever I see it". The Moldy Peaches themselves show up with heartfelt nerd-love duet "Anyone Else But You", also performed by the film's two stars in the final scene.

The collection features some breezy acoustic rock that you may, or should, already have in your collection. Rock heroes, The Kinks make an acoustic appearance with the fantastic "A Well Respected Man". Bespectacled rocker Buddy Holly adds the lovely, fluffy "Dearest". Scottish indie heroes Belle & Sebastian show up twice on the collection. New York love tune, "Piazza, New York Catcher" features the soft romantic tones the band is known for. "Expectations" sharply tells a bitter tale of high school unpopularity, "And the rumor is you never go with boys and you are tight / So they jab you with a fork you drop the tray and go berserk / While you're cleaning up the mess, the teacher's looking up your skirt".

The soundtrack to Juno matches the film's cute factor, but unlike the movie, will not stick with you for days. It nails the mood of the film, but the breezy acoustic shuffle of it all makes for a fleeting sonic experience.